Finding the Happy Medium: A Practice-Oriented Framework for Navigating Faith and Non-Heterosexuality Based on Qualitative Interviews

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Objectives This work aimed to explore the experiences of participants identifying as both religious and non-heterosexual, with a deeper focus on how they sought support to navigate these identities.Method A grounded theory approach, using semi-structured interviews with 16 participants from different religious backgrounds, was employed.Results A number of themes arose, including conflict that is both internal and external (from societal norms), negotiation of identity—including either affirming or rejecting their different identities—and a desire for a person-centred space that encourages internal dialogue rather than immediate judgment. Analysis revealed three dichotomies shaping participants’ identity navigation: fluidity versus fixedness in faith and sexuality (whether religion and sexuality are personally negotiable or externally determined), the distinction between personal beliefs and enacted practices, and public versus private acceptance of intersectional identities. Participants expressed a need to be seen as holistic individuals beyond their religious and sexual identities.Conclusions The article presents “Finding the Happy Medium,” a person-centred, conversational framework to support religious and secular service providers in creating safe spaces for clients navigating faith–sexuality intersections. The framework offers a bridge between sexuality-affirming and faith-affirming services. These results have applications across therapeutic, coaching, and community support settings.